DOCSLIB.ORG

Systems Theory and Judicial Behavioralism Ovid C

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Systems Theory and Judicial Behavioralism Ovid C Case Western Reserve Law Review Volume 21 | Issue 3 1970 Systems Theory and Judicial Behavioralism Ovid C. Lewis Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarlycommons.law.case.edu/caselrev Part of the Law Commons Recommended Citation Ovid C. Lewis, Systems Theory and Judicial Behavioralism, 21 Case W. Res. L. Rev. 361 (1970) Available at: https://scholarlycommons.law.case.edu/caselrev/vol21/iss3/4 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Student Journals at Case Western Reserve University School of Law Scholarly Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Case Western Reserve Law Review by an authorized administrator of Case Western Reserve University School of Law Scholarly Commons. 19701 Systems Theory and Judicial Behavioralism Ovid C. Lewis* There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.- Hamlet, Act I, Sc. 5 line 166. I. INTRODUCTION D ISTINGUISHED judicial behavioralist not long ago observed that just as most sciences have progressed from mere speculation (theory without facts) to empiricism (facts without theory) and finally to maturity (theory empirically verified), so too has analysis of judi- cial behavior moved from the traditional approach, i.e., philo- THE AUTHOR: OVID C. LEWs (B.A., sophical, analytical, historical, J.D., Rutgers, The State University; L.LM., Columbia University) is a Pro- and sociological jurisprudence fessor of Law at Case Western Reserve (theory without facts), to legal University and is a member of the New realism (facts without theory) Jersey and Federal Bars, and finally to judicial behavior- alism (theory empirically veri- fied) . Although it surely smacks of hyperbole,2 the statement re- flects the current demand for an infusion of scientific methods into analysis of judicial behavior. Indeed, we find that demands are be- * Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of the Science of Law in the Faculty of Law, Columbia University. 1See Schubert, Introduaction to JUDICIAL BEHAVIOR 1, 2-3 (G. Schubert ed. 1964). For a more charitable evaluation of the realists, see Rumble, Rule - Skepticism and the Role of the Judge: A Study of American Legal Realism, 15 J. PUB. L. 251 (1966). It is now dear that the theoretical and empirical dimensions are inextricably interrelated. See A. KAPLAN, THE CONDuCT OF INQUIRY 54-62 (1964); Bierstedt, A Critique of Empiricism in Sociology, 14 Am. SOCIOLOGICAL REV. 584 (1949); Meadows, Model Systems, and Science, 22 AM. SOCIOLOGICAL REV. 3 (1957); Merton, The Bearing of Empirical Research Upon the Development of Social Theory, 13 Am. SOCIOLOGICAL REv. 505 (1948); Sewell, Some Observations on Theory Testing, 21 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 1 (1956). 2 Sociological jurisprudence, for example, has long evinced an interest in both theory (the law-in-books) and facts (the law-in-action). See T. CowAN, AMERiCAN JURIS- PRUDENCE READER 135-246 (1956); Page, Professor Ehrlich's Czernowitz Seminar of Living Law, in 1914 PROCEEDINGS: AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF LAW SCHOOLS 46; Nussbaum, Fact Research in Law, 40 CoLUM. L. REV. 189 (1940). CASE WESTERN RESERVE LAW REVIEW [Vol. 21: 361 ing made with increasing frequency for an application of the scien- tific approach to all aspects of legal processes and institutions. This is justified, since given the increasing interaction of law and science, it clearly does behoove both lawyers and scientists to try to understand better the other's perspective. This intersection of law and science, as Professor David Cavers has noted,3 is today es- pecially apparent in at least the following areas: (1) In determining both adjudicative and legislative facts, the courts more and more turn to science for answers, e.g., in cases involving personal injury, patent law, and criminal responsibility. 4 (2) Scientific and tech- nological developments that require reexamination and modifica- tion of legal doctrine.5 For example, the technology that enables the uninvited to invade our lives by keeping an extensive and per- manent record of our daily existence has great significance for the law of privacy." The use of computers, one of the prodigious prog- eny of scientific technology, necessitates a reexamination of innu- merable areas of the law,7 as does the rapid development of com- munication sciences.8 The legal problems portended by genetic manipulation, cloning, ESB, hallucinogenic drugs, organ transplants, and medical experimentation are staggering.9 (3) Science pro- duces new hazards which law must necessarily limit and control. Consider the dangers presented by new and potent drugs,' ° pesti- 3 See Cavers, Law and Science: Some Points of Confrontation, in LAW AND THE SOCIAL ROLE OF SCIENCE 5 (H. Jones ed. 1967). See also Caldwell, Jurisprudencein InterdisciplinaryEnvironments, 8 JURIMETRICS J. 1 (1968). 4 See Korn, Law, Fact, and Science in the Courts, 66 COLUM. L. REv. 1080 (1966); Note, The Criminal Trial Process - Fight for Truth, 19 CASE W. RES. L REV. 713 (1968). Judges are not entirely hospitable to these developments. See, e.g., York, Austern Notes Judicial Hostility to Prohahility, -ARv. L. RECORD, Dec. 12, 1968, at 3. See also Solomon, Jurimetrics, 8 JURIMETRICS J. 7 (1968). 5 See Symposium - The Impact of Science and Technology on International Law, 55 CALIF. L. REv. 419 (1967). 6 See A. WESTIN, PRIVACY AND FREEDOM 349-65 (1967); Ruebhausen & Brim, Privacy and BehavioralResearch, 65 COLUM. L REv. 1184 (1965). 7 See COMPUTERS AND THE LAW 85-116 (R. Bigelow ed. 1966); R. McBRIDE, THE AUTOMATED STATES: COMPUTER SYSTEMS AS A NEW FORCE IN SOCIETY (1967); Mermin, Computers, Law and Justice: An Introductory Lecture, 1967 WIS. L REV. 43. 8 See COMMUNICATION SCIENCES AND LAW: REFLECTIONS FROM THE JURIMET- RiCs CONFERENCE (L. Allen & M. Caldwell eds. 1965) [hereinafter cited as JURRMET- RICS CONFERENCE]. 9 For a good bibliography, see LAw AND THE SOCIAL ROLE OF SCIENCE 168-69 (H. Jones ed. 1967). See also Symposium - Science Challenges the Law, 19 CASE W. RES. L. REV. 5 (1967); Symposium - Reflections on the New Biology, 15 U.C.L.A.L. REv. 267 (1968). 10 See B. BARBER, DRUGS AND SOCIETY 115-61 (1967). 19701 JUDICIAL BEHAVIORALISM cides and pollution,1 weather modification, 2 and most terrifying of all - nuclear power. 3 (4) Government through law in allocat- ing only certain portions of scarce resources to science, significantly effects the scientific enterprise.' 4 The law schools have begun to react, albeit slowly, to these de- mands. Legal literature is replete with suggestions for injecting more social science into the law school curriculum. 15 Recently the Special Commission on the Social Sciences, established by the Na- tional Science Board in 1968, recommended incorporation of more social science material in law curricula, appointment of social sci- entists to law school faculties, and increased collaboration between the law-trained and social science professionals. 6 The vigorous reaction of legal scholars to the challenge of the intersection of law and science is manifest in the proliferation dur. ing the last two decades of literally thousands of studies that pur- " See Reitze, Pollution Control. Why Has It Failed?, 55 A.3.AJ. 923 (1969); Train, Crimes Against the Environment, TRIAL, Aug./Sept. 1969, at 19. 12 See generally WEATHER MODIFICATION AND THE LAW (H. Taubenfeld ed. 1968); Oppenheimer, The Legal Aspects of Weather Modification, 1958 INS. LJ. 314; Taubenfeld, Weather Modification and Control. Some International Legal Implica- tions, 55 CALIF. L REv. 493 (1967); Pierce, Legal Aspects of Weather Modification Snowpack Augmentation in Wyoming, 2 LAND & WATER L. REV. 273 (1967). 13 The elaborate precautions necessary to avert the danger of disaster created by storage of the waste products of atomic fusion reactors are dramatically described by Lord Ritchie-Calder: At Hanford [Washington] ... live atoms are kept in tanks constructed of carbon steel, resting in a steel saucer to catch any leakage. These are enclosed in a reenforced [sic] concrete structure and the whole construction is buried in the ground with only the vents showing. In the steel sepulchers, each with a million gallon capacity, the atoms are very much alive. Their radioactivity keeps the acids in the witches' brew boiling. In the bottom of the tanks the temperature is well above the boiling point of water. There has to be a cool- ing system, therefore, and it must be continuously maintained. In addition, the vapors generated in the tanks have to be condensed and scrubbed, other- wise a radioactive miasma would escape from the vents. Some of the elements in those high-level wastes will remain radioactive for at least 250,000 years. It is most unlikely that the tanks will endure as long as the Egyptian Pyramids. Ritchie-Calder, Polluting the Environment, 2 THE CENTER MAGAZINE, May 1969, at 7, 12. 14 See generally Symposium - Science and Public Policy, 27 PUB. AD. REV. 95 (1967). 5 1 See, e.g., S. Fox, SCIENCE AND JuSTIcE (1968); Hazard, Challenges to Legal Education, in THE PATH OF LAW FROM 1968: PROCEEDINGS AND PAPERS AT THE HARVARD LAw SCHOOL CONVOCATION HELD ON THE 150TH ANNIVERSARY OF ITS FOuNDING 185-94 (1968); Haskell, Some Thoughts About Our Law Schools, 56 GEO. LU. 897, 904-05 (1968); Massel, Science and Technology and the Future Law School Curriculum, 44 DENVER LJ. 36, 40-41 (Special Issue, Fall 1967); Traynor, What Domesday Books for Emerging Law?, 15 U.C.L.A.L. REV. 1105 (1968). 16See SPECIAL COMMISSION ON THE SOCIAL SCIENCES, NATIONAL SCIENCE BOARD, KNOWLEDGE INTO ACTION: IMPROVING THE NATION'S USE OF THE SOCIAL SCIENCES xiii, 23 (1969). CASE WESTERN RESERVE LAW REVIEW [Vol. 21: 361 port to analyze scientifically some aspect of the legal process.'" 8 Many of these studies are subsumed under the rubric "jurimetrics,"' a term coined in 1949 by Lee Loevinger.' 0 It is highly debatable, however, whether all these studies are appropriately denominated "scientific, ' "20 although the most frequently offered definition of jurimetrics is the "scientific investigation of legal problems."'" The lack of understanding of what constitutes science is exemplified when one considers some of the arguments proffered for justifying jurimetric ventures as scientific.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Download Article (PDF)
    Advances in Social Science, Education and Humanities Research, volume 124 International Conference on Contemporary Education, Social Sciences and Humanities (ICCESSH 2017) Information Ecology in Structuring Sociocultural Space of Modern Society Eleonora Barkova Department of History and Philosophy Plekhanov Russian University of Economics (PRUE) Stremyanny per., 36, Moscow, 117997, Russia E-mail: [email protected] Marina Ivleva Elena Agibalova Department of History and Philosophy Department of Foreign Languages № 3 Plekhanov Russian University of Economics (PRUE) Plekhanov Russian University of Economics (PRUE) Stremyanny per., 36, Moscow, 117997, Russia Stremyanny per., 36, Moscow, 117997, Russia Abstract—The article studies potential application of an living, for the ecosystem on all the levels were also identified. information ecology approach for the analysis of a V.A.Kutyrev was right to say that today “it’s important…to contemporary stage in the development of an information suggest some sort of a modus vivendi between realism and society. It is illustrated using the example of this approach modernism that reflects our natural, objective macro world utilized to study a social element – sociocultural space. The and post-modernism as, actually, the ideology of other, article analyses distinctive features of information ecology as a informative-virtual micro and mega worlds. Ecological modern philosophical approach based on holistic and problems that had been referred to nature not long ago, systematic principles which provides
    [Show full text]
  • Hegel and the Metaphysical Frontiers of Political Theory
    Copyrighted material - provided by Taylor & Francis Eric Goodfield. American University Beirut. 23/09/2014 Hegel and the Metaphysical Frontiers of Political Theory For over 150 years G.W.F. Hegel’s ghost has haunted theoretical understanding and practice. His opponents first, and later his defenders, have equally defined their programs against and with his. In this way Hegel’s political thought has both situated and displaced modern political theorizing. This book takes the reception of Hegel’s political thought as a lens through which contemporary methodological and ideological prerogatives are exposed. It traces the nineteenth- century origins of the positivist revolt against Hegel’s legacy forward to political science’s turn away from philosophical tradition in the twentieth century. The book critically reviews the subsequent revisionist trend that has eliminated his metaphysics from contemporary considerations of his political thought. It then moves to re- evaluate their relation and defend their inseparability in his major work on politics: the Philosophy of Right. Against this background, the book concludes with an argument for the inherent meta- physical dimension of political theorizing itself. Goodfield takes Hegel’s recep- tion, representation, as well as rejection in Anglo-American scholarship as a mirror in which its metaphysical presuppositions of the political are exception- ally well reflected. It is through such reflection, he argues, that we may begin to come to terms with them. This book will be of great interest to students, scholars, and readers of polit- ical theory and philosophy, Hegel, metaphysics and the philosophy of the social sciences. Eric Lee Goodfield is Visiting Assistant Professor at the American University of Beirut, Lebanon.
    [Show full text]
  • BEHAVIORAL and POST BEHAVIORAL APPROACH to POLITICAL SCIENCE Sunita Agarwal1 and Prof
    ISSN: 2455-2224 Contents lists available at http://www.albertscience.com ASIO Journal of Humanities, Management & Social Sciences Invention (ASIO-JHMSSI) Volume 1, Issue 1, 2015: 18-22 BEHAVIORAL AND POST BEHAVIORAL APPROACH TO POLITICAL SCIENCE Sunita Agarwal1 and Prof. S K Singh2 1Govt. College, Ajmer, Rajasthan, India 2Department of Political Science, Govt. College, Ajmer, Rajasthan, India ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT The Behaviourailsts had laid too a great deal significance on value-free research. Review Article History In fact it was one of their essential points. They stood for value neutrality in research at all levels. Values for all practical purposes were out of their consideration. Post Behaviourailsts however, did not agree with this perspective Corresponding Author: and stressed on value loaded political Science. According to them all information Sunita Agarwal† stands on values and that unless value is considered as the basis of knowledge there is every threat that knowledge will become meaningless. They are of the view that in political research values have big role to play. The behaviouralists Govt. College, Ajmer, Rajasthan, India argue that science had some ideal commitments and that behaviouralism shared these ideal commitments of science. This thesis of the behaviouralists is not acceptable to the post-behaviouralists. They think that the technical research and scientific knowledge pursued by the behaviouralists should not be cut off from the realities of life. It should be related to vital social problems and aim at solving some problems. It is a reform movement of Behaviouralism which appreciates the work done by Behaviourailsts in developing tools, techniques and methods of research but wish that those should be used for the good of the society.
    [Show full text]
  • Lisa R. Pruitt
    LISA R. PRUITT UC Davis School of Law 530 752 2750 400 Mrak Hall Drive 530 752 4704 (fax) Davis, CA 95616 [email protected] POSITIONS HELD University of California, Davis, Martin Luther King, Jr., School of Law Martin Luther King, Jr., Professor of Law 2015-present Professor of Law 2004-2015 Acting Professor of Law 1999-2004 Granted tenure in 2004. Courses: Torts, law and rural livelihoods, white working class and the law, feminist legal theory, sociology of the legal profession. Taught undergraduate students in University Honors Program (previously Davis Honors Challenge), a non-traditional honors course focused on collaborative learning that bridges the gap between academic research and practical solutions to “real world” tasks. Most recently, taught Project Management Course, 2011-2015. Taught undergraduate seminar for first-year First Gen students, Fall 2018, “The First Gen Experience in Scholarly and Popular Literature.” Research: Law and rural livelihoods, legal geography, white working class and white poverty, critical race theory, feminist legal theory, reproductive rights, legal profession, communicative torts. Prizes: Bill and Sally Rutter Distinguished Teaching Award 2020; nominee for award 2003, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2012, 2013 Dean’s Distinguished Visitor, University of Southern Queensland, Faculty of Business and Law, August 2012 Selected to present paper at 2002 Stanford-Yale Junior Faculty Forum, Law and Humanities category Martin Luther King, Jr. Hall Scholar 2009-2010, 2010-2011, 2011-12, 2012-13, 2014-2015,
    [Show full text]
  • From Modernism to Messianism: Liberal Developmentalism And
    From Modernism to Messianism: Liberal Developmentalism and American Exceptionalism1 Following the Second World War, we encounter again many of the same developmental themes that dominated the theory and practice of imperialism in the nineteenth century. Of course, there are important differences as well. For one thing, the differentiation and institutionalization of the human sciences in the intervening years means that these themes are now articulated and elaborated within specialized academic disciplines. For another, the main field on which developmental theory and practice are deployed is no longer British – or, more broadly, European – imperialism but American neoimperialism. At the close of the War, the United States was not only the major military, economic, and political power left standing; it was also less implicated than European states in colonial domination abroad. The depletion of the colonial powers and the imminent breakup of their empires left it in a singular position to lead the reshaping of the post-War world. And it tried to do so in its own image and likeness: America saw itself as the exemplar and apostle of a fully developed modernity.2 In this it was, in some ways, only reproducing the self-understanding and self- regard of the classical imperial powers of the modern period. But in other ways America’s civilizing mission was marked by the exceptionalism of its political history and culture, which was famously analyzed by Louis Hartz fifty years ago.3 Picking up on Alexis de Tocqueville’s observation that Americans were “born equal,” Hartz elaborated upon the uniqueness of the American political experience.
    [Show full text]
  • Analyzing Social Disadvantage in Rural Peripheries in Czechia and Eastern Germany: Conceptual Model and Study Design
    A Service of Leibniz-Informationszentrum econstor Wirtschaft Leibniz Information Centre Make Your Publications Visible. zbw for Economics Keim-Klärner, Sylvia et al. Working Paper Analyzing social disadvantage in rural peripheries in Czechia and Eastern Germany: Conceptual model and study design Thünen Working Paper, No. 170 Provided in Cooperation with: Johann Heinrich von Thünen Institute, Federal Research Institute for Rural Areas, Forestry and Fisheries Suggested Citation: Keim-Klärner, Sylvia et al. (2021) : Analyzing social disadvantage in rural peripheries in Czechia and Eastern Germany: Conceptual model and study design, Thünen Working Paper, No. 170, ISBN 978-3-86576-218-4, Johann Heinrich von Thünen-Institut, Braunschweig, http://dx.doi.org/10.3220/WP1614067689000 This Version is available at: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/232538 Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen: Terms of use: Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Documents in EconStor may be saved and copied for your Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden. personal and scholarly purposes. Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle You are not to copy documents for public or commercial Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich purposes, to exhibit the documents publicly, to make them machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen. publicly available on the internet, or to distribute or otherwise use the documents in public. Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, If the documents have been made available under an Open gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort Content Licence (especially Creative Commons Licences), you genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. may exercise further usage rights as specified in the indicated licence.
    [Show full text]
  • Rural Sociological Society Natural Resources Research Group
    From the Chair’s Desk Rural Dear NRRIG members, Sociological It is my pleasure to share our Fall 2019 newsletter with you. Our members have been incredibly productive over the past Society Natural few months, and it is wonderful to see the wide reach and Resources impact that their research is having. NRRIG was also well represented at the Annual Meeting earlier this summer in Research Group Richmond, VA. We sponsored multiple sessions again this year, Newsletter including a professional development roundtable. Some of our members organized and participated in “RSS on the Hill”, a pre-conference field trip to Washington D.C. to meet with a range of federal representatives and organizations to discuss Fall 2019 the importance of rural sociology in political contexts (see an overview of these events on page 2). NRRIG also has new leadership this year – you can read more about us on page 3. Please don’t hesitate to reach out to us if Edited by: you have any comments or suggestions to make sure our RIG is Cat Edgeley serving your needs. We are particularly interested in hearing NRRIG Chair about field trips or special sessions you would like to see [email protected] planned for the 2020 RSS meeting in Westminster, Colorado. RIG leaders will be participating in a conference call later this Mary Sketch NRRIG Co-Chair month where there will be opportunities to discuss potential [email protected] events for the 2020 meeting – your input is extremely valuable for these conversations. Hannah Whitley I would also like to take this opportunity to thank Amanda NRRIG Student rep Buday for her hard work and dedication to our RIG over the [email protected] past two years.
    [Show full text]
  • 266 Apologist for the Social Sciences, and an Arbiter of Methodology
    266 BOOK REVIEWS apologist for the social sciences, and an arbiter of methodology. Unfortunately, this section is ponderous and cumbersome, reflecting a curious combination of the banal and the academic. The pervading theme is the search for "truth", but not in terms of media or of the art of conversation. Nor, for that matter, does the annotated bibliography, interesting as it may be, relate in any logical way to the title or the pro- claimed theme. One does, indeed, feel a certain contraint in either dismissing or denigrating a work by a scholar of international dimensions, and a work published under the subscript, "Contributions in Sociology, Number 71." There are, of course, occasional bursts of interests, of insight, even of passion. But we must be bothered by laments such as: "We live in an age of uncertainty, disintegration, and violence." Alas, history is hardly quiet in its constant repetition of these qualities. True enough, mass media have had and are having their own impact. But thus is Ferrarotti's work a mixture of the academic and the obvious. University of Pittsburgh ROBERT NOSSEN Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA Donald R. Field and William R. Burch, Jr., Rural Sociology and the Environment. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, Inc., 1988, 155 pp., $ 33.95 (cloth). Science is pluralistic, and this is quite so regarding the science of humans and their environment wherein each domain is of unlimited complexity and depth. The subject has given birth to a tremendous diversity of concepts, views, and approaches. This book, dedicated to one of the most crucial points of coherence between humankind and nature, exemplifies this notion.
    [Show full text]
  • Ithe Emporia State Studies
    ITHE EMPORIA STATE STUDIES 0 THE GRADUATE PUBLICATION OF THE EMPORIA STATE UNIVERSITY ' .w L'.;;q bm bm mF. Parsons, Behavioralism, and the ResponsibilitvJ Walter B. Roettger EMPORIA STATE UNIVERSITY EMPORIA, KANSAS J Parsons, Behavioralism, and the Notion of Responsibility Walter B. Roettger Volume XXV Spring, 1977 Number 4 THE EMPORIA STATE RESEARCH STUDIES is published quarterly by The School of Graduate and Frofessional Studies of the Emporia State University, 1200 Commercial St., Emporia, Kansas, 66801, Entered as second-class matter September 16, 1952, at the post office at Emporia, Kansas, llnder the act of Angust 24, 1912. Postage paid at Emporia, Kansas. EMPORIA STATE UNIVERSITY EMPORIA, KANSAS JOHN E. VISSER President of tlle University SCHOOL OF GRADUATE AND PROFESSIONAL STUDIES HAROLD DURST, Dean EDITORIAL BOARD WILLIAMH. SEJLER,Profezsor of History and Chirporson, Division of Social Sciences CHARLESE. WALTON,Professor of English and Chairperson of Department GREEND. WYRICK,Professor of English Editor of this Issue: WILLIAMH. SEILER Papers published in this periodical are written by faculty members of the Emporia- State University and by either undergraduate or graduate students whose studies are conducted in residence under the supervision of a faculty member of the University. , r,l-v-a PROCESSBNB APH eg 3d~ "Statement required by the Act of October, 1962; Section 4369, Title 39, United States Code, showing Ownership, Management and Circula- tion." The Emporia State Research Studies is published quarterly. Edi- torial Office and Publication Office at 1200 Commercial Street, Emporia, Kansas. (66801). The Research Studies is edited and published by the Emporia State University, Emporia, Kansas. A complete list of all publications of The Emporio State Research Studies is published in the fourth number of each volume.
    [Show full text]
  • Research Deserts: a Systematic Mapping Review of U.S. Rural Education Definitions and Geographies
    Journal of Research in Rural Education, 2021, 37(2) Research Deserts: A Systematic Mapping Review of U.S. Rural Education Definitions and Geographies Michael Thier University of Oregon Jesse M. Longhurst Southern Oregon University Phillip D. Grant University of West Georgia Jessica E. Hocking University of Notre Dame Citation: Thier, M., Longhurst, J. M., Grant, P. D., & Hocking, J. E. (2021). Research deserts: A systematic mapping review of U.S. rural education definitions and geographies.Journal of Research in Rural Education, 37(2). https://doi.org/10.26209/jrre3702 U.S. education research about rural places commonly neglects definitional boundaries. Our systematic mapping review of 524 studies approximated how early-career scholars and those new to the rural education research space, including practitioners and policymakers, might experience the literature base and provides a bird’s-eye view of how studies tend to define rurality and the types of locations, sectors, and participant roles that they interrogate within inquiries of rural education. We found definitions or demonstrations of rurality in 30% of our sample and little common ground among such studies. For example, 8.59% of studies in our sample applied the National Center for Education Statistics’ urban- centric locale codes, still making that the most frequently employed schema. Defining rural occurred about twice as often within articles in rural-focused journals than within non-rural-focused journals, while articles in Journal of Research in Rural Education defined rural nearly three times as often as articles in non-rural-focused journals. Regionally, we found considerable evidence that site selection has tended to privilege the South and Midwest, seeming to desert the Northeast, Upper Midwest, and swaths of the West.
    [Show full text]
  • The Empirical Approach to Political Science 27
    THE EMPIRICAL APPROACH 2 TO POLITICAL SCIENCE olitical scientists Jeffrey Winters and Benjamin Page wonder CHAPTER OBJECTIVES Pif the United States, despite being a nominal democracy, is not in fact governed by an oligarchy, a relatively small num- 2.1 Identify eight characteristics of ber of very wealthy individuals and families.1 Their work leads empiricism. them to conclude: 2.2 Discuss the importance of distributetheory in empiricism. We believe it is now appropriate to . think about the possibility of extreme political inequality, involving great 2.3 Explain the five steps in the political influence by a very small number of wealthy or empirical research process. individuals. We argue that it is useful to think about the 2.4 Describe practical obstacles US political system in terms of oligarchy.2 that challenge the empirical approach. What are we to make of a (perhaps startling) claim such as this? How do we know it’s true? Should we accept it? 2.5 Summarize competing As the title of our book and this chapterpost, suggest, we have perspectives. confidence in a statement like Winters and Page’s if they arrive at their (tentative) conclusion through empiricism. This term is perhaps best explained by reference to an old joke. Three baseball umpires are discussing their philosophy of calling balls and strikes. The first umpire says, “I call ’em as I see ’em.” The next one replies, “That’s nothing. I call ’em as they are.” Finally, the third chimes in, “Oh yeah! Well, they ain’t nothing until I call ’em.” We put aside Umpirescopy, 1 and 3 until later in the chapter.
    [Show full text]
  • Bell-748-Fall2007.Pdf
    Instructor: Michael M. Bell Fall, 2007 340C Agricultural Hall University of Wisconsin-Madison [email protected] T 1:20-3:15, F 3-4:00, 301 Ag Hall Sociology/Rural Sociology 748 ENVIRONMENTAL SOCIOLOGY “The real issues in sustainability aren’t technical,” an agronomist said to me a few years ago, “they’re social.” An over-statement perhaps—sustainability certainly also involves many real, and often difficult, technical issues. But this agronomist’s words are indicative of how researchers from across the disciplines are increasingly coming to value the importance of a sociological perspective in the study of the environment. This course presents a graduate-level introduction into that important perspective. The organization of the course, rather immodestly, roughly follows the organization of a book of mine, An Invitation to Environmental Sociology, which we will also read in the second week of the semester. I hesitate to assign my own book, fearing it might discourage debate. But it does provide a general overview and synthesis of the field. Besides, you might as well know what I think about the various topics we will cover, and I don’t want to lecture. The course is intended to be an occasion to read, to write, and to discuss—not a sit-back-and- take-notes-for-the-exam class. So please accept my invitation to engage in critical, cooperative interchange with each other (including me!). That’s what a course should be all about. Call it the “three r’s” of scholarship: reading, ‘riting, and responding. To further that responding, we’ll have two kinds of sessions—seminar sessions and more informal conversation labs, one of each per week.
    [Show full text]